Executive functions and theory of mind associations in middle childhood: Does social interaction act as a mediator?

This study explored the interplay of executive functions (EFs), social interactions, and theory of mind (ToM) in middle childhood. The first aim was to examine how specific EFs-shifting, inhibition, and working memory (WM)-predict social-perceptual and social-cognitive ToM. The second aim was to explore the potential mediating role of social interactions in the EF-ToM relationship. A total of 98 children aged 8 to 11 years completed three computerized EF tasks (task switching, flanker, and running span) and two ToM tasks (Strange Stories and Reading the Mind in the Eyes). The quality and quantity of social interactions were self-reported by using questionnaires. First, multiple regression analyses with age-adjusted scores examined how specific EFs predict ToM scores. The regression model was significant for social-cognitive ToM, but not for social-perceptual ToM. WM accuracy was the only significant, positive predictor for performance on the Strange Stories task. Second, mediation analyses assessed whether social interactions mediate this EF-ToM relationship. There were no significant mediation effects of the quality and quantity of social interactions on the relationship between WM and social-cognitive ToM. In conclusion, EFs play a significant role in explaining social-cognitive ToM variability in middle childhood. WM is relevant for understanding others' mental states, in contrast to shifting and inhibition that lacked predictive value. The results also suggest different cognitive processes associated with social-perceptual versus social-cognitive ToM in this developmental stage.

Resting-state EEG microstates predict mentalizing ability as assessed by the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test.

Microstates analysis of electroencephalography (EEG) has gained increasing attention among researchers and clinicians as a valid tool for investigating temporal dynamics of large-scale brain networks with a millisecond time resolution. Although microstates analysis has been widely applied to elucidate the neurophysiological basis of various cognitive functions in both clinical and non-clinical samples, its application in relation to socio-affective processing has been relatively under-researched. Therefore, the main aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship between EEG microstates and mentalizing (i.e., the ability to understand the mental states of others). Eighty-two participants (thirty-six men; mean age: 24.28 ±â€¯7.35 years; mean years of education: 15.66 ±â€¯1.80) underwent resting-state EEG recording and performed the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET). The parameters of the microstates were then calculated using Cartool v. 4.09 software. Our results showed that the occurrence of microstate map C was independently and positively associated with the RMET score and contributed to the prediction of mentalizing performance, even when controlling for potential confounding variables (i.e., age, sex, education level, tobacco and alcohol use). Since microstate C is involved in self-related processes, our findings may reflect the link between self-awareness of one's own thoughts/feelings and the enhanced ability to recognize the mental states of others at the neurophysiological level. This finding extends the functions traditionally attributed to microstate C, i.e. mind-wandering, self-related thoughts, prosociality, and emotional and interoceptive processing, to include mentalizing ability.

Group Coordination Catalyzes Individual and Cultural Intelligence.

A large program of research has aimed to ground large-scale cultural phenomena in processes taking place within individual minds. For example, investigating whether individual agents equipped with the right social learning strategies can enable cumulative cultural evolution given long enough time horizons. However, this approach often omits the critical group-level processes that mediate between individual agents and multi-generational societies. Here, we argue that interacting groups are a necessary and explanatory level of analysis, linking individual and collective intelligence through two characteristic feedback loops. In the first loop, more sophisticated individual-level social learning mechanisms based on Theory of Mind facilitate group-level complementarity, allowing distributed knowledge to be compositionally recombined in groups; these group-level innovations, in turn, ease the cognitive load on individuals. In the second loop, societal-level processes of cumulative culture provide groups with new cognitive technologies, including shared language and conceptual abstractions, which set in motion new group-level processes to further coordinate, recombine, and innovate. Taken together, these cycles establish group-level interaction as a dual engine of intelligence, catalyzing both individual cognition and cumulative culture.

Social cognition, psychosocial development and well-being in galactosemia.

BACKGROUND: Classic galactosemia is a rare inherited metabolic disease with long-term complications, particularly in the psychosocial domain. Patients report a lower quality of social life, difficulties in interactions and social relationships, and a lower mental health. We hypothesised that social cognition deficits could partially explain this psychological symptomatology. Eleven adults with galactosemia and 31 control adults participated in the study. We measured social cognition skills in cognitive and affective theory of Mind, and in basic and complex emotion recognition. We explored psychosocial development and mental well-being. RESULTS: We found significant deficits on all 4 social cognition measures. Compared to controls, participants with galactosemia were impaired in the 2nd-order cognitive theory of mind, in affective theory of mind, and in basic and complex emotion recognition. Participants with galactosemia had a significant delay in their psychosexual development, but we found no delay in social development and no significant decrease in mental health. CONCLUSION: Social cognition processes seem impaired among our participants with galactosemia. We discuss the future path research may follow. More research is needed to replicate and strengthen these results and establish the links between psychosocial complications and deficits in social cognition.

Linking the inner and outer mental representations of the body to social cognition skills: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

An interesting interpretation of embodiment highlights the critical role of mental body representations (BR), including motor, somatosensory, and interoceptive formats, for social cognition. However, the nature of this relationship is still debated at the empirical level, with various studies arriving at different conclusions. Here, we present a systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to summarize data from 3466 participants in 21 studies to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between inner and outer BR and social cognition. We focused on two core social cognition aspects: empathy and Theory of Mind (ToM). Concerning the inner BR, our meta-analytic findings reveal a significant correlation between specific interoceptive dimensions (i.e., interoceptive sensibility and accuracy) and social cognition, which was stronger for empathy than ToM. Conversely, although further research is needed, functional BR that mainly involve the outer body processing (i.e., nonaction-oriented BR) may show positive links with ToM. These findings point to specific interactions between BR and social cognition skills, supporting multi-faceted and embodied social cognition models. However, we also identified critical knowledge gaps and highlighted the need for further investigation to deepen our theoretical understanding of these relationships and their implications for clinical practice.

Mindsets over matter: priming theory of mind improves older adults' mental state attributions about naturalistic social interactions.

OBJECTIVES: Aging is associated with declines in theory of mind - the ability to infer the mental states of others. We examined whether priming theory of mind mindsets actively (Study 1) and passively (Study 2) improved older adults' performance. METHOD: Across two studies, participants completed a novel question-and-answer theory of mind task using the television show Nathan for You® in a mindset or no mindset condition. In Study 1, participants (N = 324, 18-84 years) completed a similar task related to a different show prior to the Nathan for You task (active mindset). In Study 2, young (N = 235; MAge = 20.47) and older (N = 193, MAge = 74.48) adults made continuous ratings of awkwardness of different episodes of Nathan for You before completing the question-and-answer task (passive mindset). We also measured executive function and episodic memory. In both studies, the same tasks were performed in reverse order for the control conditions (no mindset). RESULTS: Mindsets were associated with small-to-medium increases in theory of mind performance. Cognitive ability did not explain these improvements. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that theory of mind performance can be improved through motivation (e.g. mindsets); cognitive function (e.g. ability) does not moderate this relationship.

Differential Social Cognitive Performance in Older Adults With Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia.

OBJECTIVE: To study general and subdomain performance in measures of social cognition in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and dementia, and to explore associations between social cognitive and neuropsychological subdomains. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study of participants from the Sydney Memory and Ageing Study (MAS). SETTING: Current data was collected in 2016-2018. PARTICIPANTS: Community-dwelling older adults (n=321) aged 80 years and above, with no history of neurological or psychiatric conditions. Participants had dementia, MCI, or no cognitive impairment (NCI). MEASURES: Social cognition was indexed using the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), the Interpersonal Reactivity Index - Perspective Taking (IRI-PT) and Empathic Concern (IRI-EC) subscales, and the Emotion Recognition Task (ERT). These subdomain scores were used to make a composite social cognition score. Apathy was measured via the Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES). Neurocognitive function was indexed using the Addenbrooke Cognitive Examination v3 (ACE-3). RESULTS: Dementia was associated with poorer overall social cognitive composite performance. MCI and dementia participants performed poorer on RMET and recognition of anger, disgust and happiness on ERT. RMET and ERT disgust remained significant after controlling for relevant covariates. Dementia participants performed poorer than MCI and NCI on the IRI-PT, IRI-EC, and AES. AES remained significant after regression. RMET was correlated with ACE-3 Fluency and/or Language in all study groups. CONCLUSIONS: MCI is associated with poorer scores in specific social cognitive assessments. Dementia is somewhat associated with poorer scores in informant-rated social cognition scales, though this is no longer significant after accounting for apathy.

Siblings at home: Moderating influence of sibling presence and composition on the relation between problem behaviors and Theory of Mind in early childhood.

Despite the prevalence of internalizing and externalizing difficulties in children, the impact of these problem behaviors on the development of important social cognitive skills, such as Theory of Mind (ToM), is not well-understood. Indeed, many studies that have explored relations between problem behaviors and ToM report inconsistent findings. A possible reason for these disparities may be a lack of accounting for social protective factors within the home, such as the presence and number of siblings. Here, we explored the moderating influence of sibling presence and number on the relation between problem behaviors (i.e., internalizing and externalizing) and ToM. A total of 184 children (88 boys; Mage = 64.6 months, SD = 10.39) completed six well-validated ToM tasks while mothers reported on their children's externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Children who had siblings living in the same home exhibited higher ToM than children without siblings. In addition, both sibling presence and number of siblings moderated the relation between children's externalizing behaviors and ToM, such that in children without siblings externalizing behaviors were negatively associated with ToM. In contrast, children with siblings had similar ToM regardless of externalizing behaviors. As well, children with relatively fewer siblings and higher externalizing behaviors displayed lower ToM than children with relatively more siblings and higher externalizing behaviors. We did not detect a moderating effect of sibling presence or number on the relation between internalizing behaviors and ToM. These findings provide support for siblings' protective utility within the context of children's social cognition.

Continuity in false belief understanding from 33 to 52 months of age.

Conceptual continuity in children's false belief understanding from toddlerhood to childhood was investigated in a longitudinal study of 75 children. Performance in a low-demands false belief task at 33 months of age was significantly correlated with performance in a content false belief task at 52 months independent of language ability and executive function. In contrast, there was no correlation with performance in a location false belief task, which differed from the "Sally-Anne" format of the low-demands task and was high in executive demands. These findings support the view that explicit false belief understanding may be continuous from toddlerhood to childhood and that developmental change may be characterized in terms of enrichment and increasing stability of core conceptual understanding rather than in terms of fundamental change.

Cognitive outcomes in late-onset versus adult-onset Multiple Sclerosis.

INTRODUCTION: Recent studies show that cognitive impairment is more prevalent in older patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). However, whether this is the result of several years of a chronic disease or specific age-related changes is still unclear. Therefore, we aim to assess the outcomes in both classic and social cognition in late-onset MS (LOMS) and compare them to adult-onset MS (AOMS) when accounting for age and disease duration. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, a group of 27 LOMS patients (age of disease onset >50 years) was compared with patients with AOMS (age of disease onset between 18 and 50 years). Patients with AOMS were grouped based on age (AOAMS, n = 27) and on disease duration (AODMS, n = 27) in order that these variables are matched with LOMS. Their cognitive performance was evaluated using the Brief International Cognitive Assessment for Multiple Sclerosis (BICAMS) and the Revised "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test (RMET). Clinical and demographic variables were collected and analysed. RESULTS: In general, both classic and social cognitive performance was inferior in the LOMS group when accounting for age and disease duration. We found a statistically significant negative correlation between age of disease onset and performance in all cognitive domains except for verbal memory. The presence of at least one vascular risk factor (VRF) was associated with slower information-processing speed (SDMT) (p = 0.006) and poorer RMET performance (p = 0.020). DISCUSSION: A later age of MS is associated with worse cognitive functioning possibly due to the loss of neuroplasticity in an already aged brain. CONCLUSION: Patients with LOMS have worse cognitive outcomes than AOMS in both classic and social domains, especially when associated with the presence of VRF. Hence, health care providers and patients should not undervalue the importance of cognitive stimulating activities, management of VFR and socialization in this specific group of patients.

Poorer representation of minds underpins less accurate mental state inference for out-groups.

Societies are becoming more polarised, driven in part by misconceptions about out-groups' beliefs. To understand these effects, one must examine the cognitive processes underlying how people think about others. Here, we investigate whether people are less prone to theorise about the minds of out-groups, or less able to do so. Participants (Study 1: n = 128; Study 2: n = 128) made inferences about social and political beliefs held by real in-group and out-group members, and could choose to receive further information to improve these inferences. Results show: (1) participants sought equivalent or greater information about out-groups relative to in-groups; but despite this, (2) made significantly less accurate inferences for out-groups; and (3) were significantly less aware of their reduced ability. This shows that poorer mental state inference is not underpinned by a reduced propensity to consider out-group minds, but instead by a worse representation of the minds of out-groups.

'The Relationship Between Childhood Traumas and Social Cognition Through Theory of Mind and Alexithymia in Bipolar Disorder'.

This study aimed to investigate the potential differences in childhood trauma (CT), theory of mind (ToM), a significant component of social cognition, and alexithymia in bipolar disorder (BD) patients and healthy controls. The study included 50 BD patients who met the study criteria and were under follow-up at our clinic along with 50 healthy controls. The two groups were matched for age, gender, and educational status. A sociodemographic questionnaire, Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS), Dokuz Eylul Theory of Mind Index (DEZIKO), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), and Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) were applied to all participants. The CTQ-Total, TAS total, and DEZIKO total scores were significantly higher in the BD group compared to the healthy group (p < .001). A significant positive correlation was identified between the TAS total score and CTQ physical neglect (r = 0.472, p = .001), CTQ emotional neglect (r = 0.449, p = .001) and CTQ total scores (r = 0.5, p < .001) in the BD group. A statistically significant negative correlation was identified between the DEZIKO faux pas score and the CTQ physical neglect score (r = -0.437, p = .002). BD patients had more adverse childhood experiences, lower ToM abilities despite being in remission, and more pronounced alexithymic personality features compared to healthy controls. We also identified a relationship between ToM, alexithymia, and adverse childhood experiences in BD.

Theory of mind skills and peer relationships in children's adjustment to preschool.

School adjustment affects children's future lives in many ways. This study examined the relationship between ToM skills, peer relationships, and school adjustment. Specifically, this study determined whether preschool children's school adjustment could be significantly predicted by theory of mind (ToM) skills and peer relationships. A total of 164 children aged 4 (34.5%), and 5 (38%) years of preschool attendance participated in the study. According to the research, children's age, theory of mind, peer relations, and school adjustment are closely related. It was also found that the theory of mind significantly predicted school adjustment (school liking/avoidance) and that prosocial and aggressive behavior predicted school liking.

Interrelations Among Adolescents' Family Connections, Solitude Preferences, Theory of Mind and Perceptions of Academic and Work Competence.

This study explored the links among family connections, solitude preferences, perceptions of work (academic and job) competence, and Theory of Mind (ToM) in 73 Canadian adolescents aged 11-18 (M age = 13.1). Previous studies show significant connections among these factors, although little is known about how such associations may relate to one another, especially the role of young people's perceptions. To address these gaps in the literature, this study focused on adolescents' experiences and perceptions of their family relationships, solitude preferences, and competence in the school context and workplace. Participants completed a series of self-report measures, advanced ToM tasks and written explanation for perceived family emotional connections. Results revealed that adolescents with more positive family connections reported higher levels of self-perceived academic and job competence, embraced solitude positively, yet felt less desire to be alone. Girls showed a higher affinity for solitude than boys, and the presence of more siblings reduced the desire for solitude. Those youth who were proficient in ToM skills reported positive family connections and high levels of academic competence. Findings hold implications for future research and education in adolescent's social cognition and social and academic outcomes.

Social Cognition in Parkinson's Disease after Focused Ultrasound Subthalamotomy: A Controlled Study.

Social cognition (SC) encompasses a set of cognitive functions that enable individuals to understand and respond appropriately to social interactions. Although focused ultrasound subthalamotomy (FUS-STN) effectively treats Parkinson's disease (PD) clinical motor features, its impact and safety on cognitive-behavioral interactions/interpersonal awareness are unknown. This study investigated the effects of unilateral FUS-STN on facial emotion recognition (FER) and affective and cognitive theory of mind (ToM) in PD patients from a randomized sham-controlled trial (NCT03454425). Subjects performed SC evaluation before and 4 months after the procedure while still under blind assessment conditions. The SC assessment included the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces task for FER, the Reading the Mind in the Eyes (RME) test for affective ToM, and The Theory of Mind Picture Stories Task (ToM PST) (order, questions, and total score) for cognitive ToM. The active treatment group showed anecdotal-to-moderate evidence of no worsening in SC after FUS-STN. Anecdotal evidence for an improvement was recognized in the SC score changes, from baseline to post-treatment, for the active treatment group compared with sham for the RME, ToM PST order, ToM PST total, FER total, and recognition of fear, disgust, and anger. This study provides the first evidence that unilateral FUS-STN does not impair social cognitive abilities, indicating that it can be considered a safe treatment approach for this domain in PD patients. Furthermore, the results suggest FUS-STN may even lead to some improvement in social cognitive outcomes, which should be considered as a preliminary finding requiring further investigation with larger samples sizes. © 2024 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

Motor, cognitive, and socio-cognitive mechanisms explaining social skills in autism and typical development.

Challenges in social functioning are considered a core criterion for diagnosing autism. Although motor skills, executive functioning (EF), and theory of mind (ToM) abilities independently affect social challenges and are interconnected, these abilities' shared contribution to the explanation of social functioning in autism remains under-investigated. To address this disparity, we examined the motor, EF, and ToM abilities of 148 autistic and non-autistic youth (ages 6-16 years), evaluating these variables' impact on social ability and their interconnections. Our mediation model exploring the contribution of motor, EF, and ToM skills explained 85% of the variance in social functioning (Social Responsiveness Scale-SRS-2). Analysis yielded a direct path from study group to SRS-2-social (typically developing-TD > autistic) and two main parallel indirect joint paths: (a) Group ➔ motor ➔ EF ➔ SRS-2-social; and (b) Group ➔ motor ➔ ToM ➔ SRS-2-social. In two secondary indirect paths, autistic children showed lower motor skills, which in turn explained their higher EF and/or ToM impairment, which in turn explained their higher social skills impairment. Put differently, our results suggest that better EF and TOM proficiency may compensate for poorer motor skills. Findings also indicated that the collective impact of motor, EF, and ToM skills on social functioning, along with the mediating role played by EF and ToM on the social-motor linkage, may contribute to understanding individual differences in the social functioning of autistic children. These conclusions call for the inclusion of motor, EF, and ToM activities into daily practices to facilitate social functioning.

Pilot study on the effectiveness of the socialmind program for the rehabilitation of social cognition following acquired brain injury.

Background: People with acquired brain injury (ABI) often have Social Cognition (SC) deficits. Impairment of SC causes the individual to have difficulties in daily functioning and can lead to social isolation. Research aimed at rehabilitation of SC in individuals with ABI is scarce and almost always addresses only one component of this ability. Objective: This pilot study aimed to assess the effectiveness of the new "SocialMind" program in improving all core components of SC in people with ABI. Method: The study included 31 participants with ABI, divided into experimental and control groups. The study spanned 44 weeks, involving an initial meeting, evaluation, training, and final assessment phases. The SocialMind program, structured into four modules, each with a duration of 30 h, targeted each SC component through tailored exercises. The program addressed emotion recognition, social awareness, ToM, and empathy. Results: The SocialMind group demonstrated significant improvements in emotion recognition (p = 0.017), social knowledge (p < 0.001), and empathy (p = 0.001) compared to the control group. ToM also showed a notable improvement that approached significance (p = 0.057). Conclusion: This pilot study suggests that the SocialMind program effectively enhances three of the four core components of SC in individuals with ABI.

Human reasoning on social interactions in ecological contexts: insights from the theory of mind brain circuits.

Introduction: The relationship between neural social cognition patterns and performance on social cognition tasks in daily life is a topic of debate, with key consideration given to the extent to which theory of mind (ToM) brain circuits share properties reflecting everyday social functioning. To test the efficacy of ecological stimuli in eliciting brain activation within the ToM brain circuits, we adapted the Edinburgh Social Cognition test social scenarios, consisting of dynamic ecological contextually embedded social stimuli, to a fMRI paradigm. Methods: Forty-two adults (21 men, mean age ± SD = 34.19 years ±12.57) were enrolled and underwent an fMRI assessment which consisted of a ToM task using the Edinburgh Social Cognition test scenarios. We used the same stimuli to prompt implicit (movie viewing) and explicit (silent and two-choice answers) reasoning on cognitive and affective mental states. The fMRI analysis was based on the classical random effect analysis. Group inferences were complemented with supplemental analyses using overlap maps to assess inter-subject variability. Results: We found that explicit mentalizing reasoning yielded wide neural activations when two-choice answers were used. We also observed that the nature of ToM reasoning, that is, affective or cognitive, played a significant role in activating different neural circuits. Discussion: The ESCoT stimuli were particularly effective in evoking ToM core neural underpinnings and elicited executive frontal loops. Future work may employ the task in a clinical setting to investigate ToM network reorganization and plasticity.

Promoting theory of mind and emotion understanding in preschool settings: an exploratory training study.

Introduction: This new exploratory study is part of a larger ongoing follow-up project. Its specific aim was to verify whether an innovative European Program, primarily designed to enhance children's social and emotional learning, led to gains in theory of mind and emotion understanding when implemented in preschool settings. Methods: Thirty-four children (mean age: 56.4 months; SD: 10.1; range: 40-70 months) participated in the study. They were randomly and equally divided into a training group and a control group. The training sample completed eight linguistic-conversational activities drawn from the Program, in groups of 5 to 6 children, over 8 weeks. The activities were based on listening to stories and/or watching videos and then thinking and talking about the inner world (thoughts and emotions) of the story characters as well as the participants' own inner states. During the training phase, the children in the control group engaged in drawing or free play activities. At both the pre-test and post-test phases of the study, all the children completed a language test, a battery of theory of mind (ToM) tasks (including 'change of location' and 'unexpected content' tasks), and the Test of Emotion Comprehension which evaluates nine components of emotion understanding (EU). The validated national versions of the tests were administered in all cases. Results: Significant differences were identified between the training and control groups. Indeed, the participants in the Program training activities, which were based on conversational exchanges between an adult and a group of children, as well as among the children themselves, outperformed the control participants on both overall theory of mind and overall emotion understanding. A more detailed analysis showed that the training group outperformed the control group in relation to both specific components of EU and the 'change of location' ToM task. Discussion: The results of this exploratory study suggest that the Program is effective at enhancing preschoolers' social understanding and thus merits implementation in preschool settings.

Theory of Mind Abilities May Predict Treatment Outcomes in Adolescents With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Follow-Up Study.

AIMS: Researchers report varying levels of cognitive flexibility and theory of mind (ToM) deficiencies in adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This research set out to investigate the impact of these variables on the disorder's outcomes. METHOD: The study involved 39 adolescents with OCD and 40 healthy controls. We assessed the case group at the initial visit to the outpatient clinic and again at the end of the first year of treatment. The Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS) was applied to assess OCD symptom distribution and severity. The Reading the Mind in the Eyes of Children Test (RME-CT) was applied to evaluate ToM skills, and the Cognitive Flexibility Scale (CFS) was employed to evaluate cognitive flexibility levels. RESULTS: Baseline RME-CT and CFS scores were significantly lower in adolescents with OCD compared to the control group (p = 0.002 p = 0.001, respectively). At the end of the 1-year follow-up, RME-CT and CFS scores increased significantly in the adolescents with OCD (p < 0.001, p = 0.003, respectively). A significant negative correlation was observed between the initial RME-CT scores and the Y-BOCS scores at the end of the 1-year follow-up (p < 0.001). The initial RME-CT score had a significant negative predictive effect on the subsequent severity of OCD (ß = -0.711, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The research revealed poorer long-term prognoses for OCD in adolescents who exhibit low ToM skills. In conclusion, the results indicate that ToM skills may serve as a predictive factor for long-term treatment outcomes among adolescents diagnosed with OCD.